CRESTED TERN. 
249 
2!j ; wings, 14; tail, base, 7| ; depth of the fork, 
3 t % ; tarsus, 1 ; hind toe and claw, T 4 H ; middle 
ditto, I T 4 ij ; inner ditto nearly 1 ; outer ditto, 1 T %. 
BLACK- WINGED TERN. 
Sterna melanoptera, Swains. 
Bill, feet, and quills, black ; tail forked, longer than the wings, 
cinereous , the two outer feathers white, with cinereous 
tips. 
There are two or three peculiarities in this species 
which renders it more easy of discrimination than 
several of its congeners. Its size is about that of 
S. hirundo ; the bill is particularly straight, so that 
the commissure has no curve, and the gonys in- 
clines upwards, just as much as the culmen does 
downward. The whole upper parts of the head and 
nape are black; a line of the same colour passes 
through the eye and lores, leaving a broad white 
band in front of the head, which passes over the 
eyes and terminates just beyond them ; the whole 
of the upper plumage is of a very dark cinereous, 
paler, indeed, on the interscapulars, but becoming 
almost black on the whole of the quill-feathers, in- 
cluding the shafts : the tail is deeply forked, and is 
coloured like the back, excepting the two outer- 
